Mind Games
Mind Games is the sixth episode of Viper. It aired on NBC on February 11, 1994. Plot The episode opens at the MetroPol Motorpool garage, where diagnostics expert Bobby Murabito (Chau) has just finished working on a squad car, as he is approached by Frankie, ranting about his Barracuda being still in the auto shop, just as Bobby gets a phone call. The caller, Flagler (Scarfe), asks Bobby for a favor, to which Bobby threatens to notify the department if Flagler calls him again, but is stopped by Flagler showing him a brainwashing video, as Bobby starts having flashback of being tied up in a torture chair. Flagler then tells Bobby he left the present for him in his bag, which Bobby picks up and goes to the car he just finished maintaining, replacing a chip under the car. Frankie Waters comes out from his office, ranting about bureaucracy, before leaving in the car Bobby had just sabotaged, driving off. However, during the drive, the car's brakes suddenly fail, and he ends up crashing into a car. Later, Joe Astor and Julian Wilkes are at the hospital, where they learn that Frankie has a severe concussion and hurt his leg pretty bad, but will be alright. They meet Bobby, and Joe decides he wants to take a look at the car Frankie crashed in. At an office, Flagler plans to have some more control panels delivered to the Motorpool to his henchman, Ed Johnson (Tim de Zarn), which Bobby would have to install all of them by his mid-afternoon shift. Ed then tells him that there are questions being asked about the last week's tech lab raid, and some Special Forces' files are being reopened by a Detective Gerraro. Flagler had previously lost his family and his pension and been sentenced to five years, while Gerraro gets promoted to Detective. However, Flagler decides that "revenge is a best dish served cold". At the night, Joe and Julian break into the Motorpool, to take a look at the car. However, just then, they are interrupted by Gerraro (Huston) busting into the scene. Julian manages to wheel away, while Gerraro tends to Joe. However, just as she is about to handcuff him, Julian throws a wrench at some cans of motor oil. Taking advantage of it, Joe instead handcuffs Gerraro to a pole. Joe and Julian escape and get in the Viper, where Julian reveals that he had found the chip Bobby had fitted. However, a few minutes later, Gerraro runs out of the garage, and they escape, morphing the Viper into Defender mode, with her in hot pursuit. As Joe attempts to disable her car with a static pulse, she manages to evade it, but they are able to evade her with the help of the hologram projector. At the Motorpool, Bobby is watching a movie, when he recieves another call. Flagler brainwashes him again, but as he goes to remove the control panel from the car, he finds the chip missing. Reporting it to Flagler, Flagler then brainwashes him further, telling him to kill Gerraro. At the Lair, Julian discovers that the circuit configuration in the chip was his design for anti-terrorist technologies, and some of his technologies were also used by the Special Forces unit. Next day at the Motorpool, Johnson has taken over Frankie's shift in the records office, and is talking to Flagler, when Bobby walks in and is brainwashed again. Visiting Frankie at the hospital, Joe learns about Sally and the old Special Forces unit, and goes to see her at the MetroPol Academy, surprising her in the locker room. However, she distracts him, then attacks him and cuffs him to the bench. Though reluctantly, Sally agrees to work with him on the case. She reveals that Flagler kept her out of the Special Forces, despite her passing every requirement, until she discovered that they were a front for the Outfit, and then single-handedly took them down. Just as they get in the Viper, Frankie calls Joe from hospital, and they find out that the vehicle assignments have been switched to Johnson. Joe and Sally go to the Motorpool, while Sally goes to talk to Johnson, Bobby sees her, pulls out a gun and starts shooting at her. When Joe attempts to stop him, he fights him off. Sally returns fire, only to get shot in the arm. Bobby then escapes. Much to Sally's chagrin, Joe takes her to the hospital, instead of chasing after Bobby. At the hospital, Joe goes to talk to Frankie, asking him to get him all the records on Bobby. Bobby goes to meet Flagler, who tells him he has one more job for him - driving a hijacked transport, and Flagler informs him that after the job, he'll have to kill him. As Joe and Sally head out to confront Bobby, Frankie calls them, sending them Bobby's service record. They discover that Bobby was the only candidate who ever resigned from the Special Forces, with no explanation given, after which he had a mental breakdown and ended up spending a year at a psychiatric facility, before being assigned to Motorpool, and since that, his record has been perfect. In Special Forces, Bobby had participated in a mind enhancement program run by Flagler, that eliminated fear in dangerous situations and strengthen individual obedience to the unit leader. After two participants committed suicide, the program was cancelled, and Bobby is the only one alive. Contacting Julian, at the Lair, Julian is able to reactive unit 757's (that Bobby took off in) tracking signal. They arrive at the scene, only to discover that Flagler has dumped the vehicle abandoned at the roadside, with a MetroPol officer in the trunk. Meanwhile, Bobby arrives at the Geneti-Tech with the transporter truck featuring a liquid nitrogen vault, and a package containing a $25,000,000 virus is loaded inside the vault. Johnson is watching over him, as he leaves in the convoy, escorted by four MetroPol units. Inside Flagler's base, the control panels in the MetroPol units are activated, immobilizing all of them. Inside the transporter, Bobby pulls a gun on the doctor, ordering him out of the truck, which is then joined by two black minivans. Joe and Sally pursue them, and Joe uses the static pulse to disable the escorting minivans. However, just as he is about to disable the transporter, Julian overrides the system, telling him that if the transporter should get damaged, there could be an epidemic, so Joe instead drives in front of the transporter to slow it down. As they are approaching an accident scene with a jackknifed gas tanker, Joe activates the hologram projector, telling Julian to strobe the brainwashing pattern to Bobby. However, when it doesn't work, Julian tells Joe to try to order Bobby to stop. This works, and Bobby manages to stop the transporter a few inches from crashing. Bobby then drives to the rendezvous point in the transporter, and just as Flagler is about to kill Bobby, MetroPol units arrive and arrest everyone. At a race course, Joe completes the course in the Viper in 2:08, as Sally claims she could beat his time. However, Joe declines the challenge, and instead they settle on a dinner date at 8. Trivia *The German title for the episode is "Tödliche Fracht" - "A Deadly Cargo". *In Germany, when originally aired on ProSieben in 1995, the episode, like most of Season 1, aired out of order as third, following Once a Thief and preceeding Ghosts. *Frankie works at MetroPol's Vehicle Maintenance Station Nr. 6. *This episode marks the first of two appearances by Sally Gerraro. *Gerraro's car is a blue Ford Probe. *Some years before the Viper Project, Julian also did some consulting for MetroPol on anti-terrorist technologies. *Gerraro had been offered to be the Viper's driver a year earlier, but she turned it down. Quotes :Frankie: Can I tell ya something? It's a conspiracy. :Bobby: Not ready yet? :Frankie: Two more days! How much can a man take? :Bobby: Relax. It's only a car. :Frankie: What, are the exhaust fumes getting to you? We're speaking of a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda, an automotive work of art, not a faulty collection of metal and bolts and wiring here. :Bobby: This faulty collection of metal and bolts and wiring is in perfect condition, while you just took the bus to work for... third day in a row? (Chuckles) :Frankie: You mock me and I am genuinely hurt. You know, if you went to best tech jockey this side of downtown, I would... (Videophone rings) Phonecall, Bobby. If it's not personal. (Leaves) :Frankie: Unbelievable. This day just keeps getting worse, what's next? :Bobby: What's wrong? :Frankie: Bureaucracy, the bane of my existence. How many times do I have to tell the finance committee that motor oil is a necessity, not a luxury? :Bobby: Going by bus? (Laughs) :Frankie: Oh, you're a real comedian. Don't give up your day job just yet, okay? :Frankie: (Monologue) And lest we forget, a police department-- no, a police force without a reliable transportation is an unreliable police force. Now my department can not continue to-- wait a minute, my department can not continue to provide the fine level of service this city has come to enjoy, if you continue to impose cuts that... (Realizes the brakes are failing) :Sally: Police, freeze! Put your hands where I can see them. Spread. Move it! :Joe: Don't I even get dinner first? :Sally: Don't make me shoot you, I just got off suspension for that. :Joe: (Being frisked) You sure you're a cop and not just lonely? :Gerraro: Who are you? :Joe: I've often asked myself the same question. :Joe: (About Gerraro) What is she, Houdini? :Joe: Looks like we stumbled into something. :Julian: Let's see if we can stumble out. :Julian: I don't know who's driving makes me more nervous, your driving or her driving... (Joe makes a U-turn) DEFINITELY YOURS!! :Julian: (About Gerraro) I gotta admit, that detective was quite a piece of work. :Joe: Not a bad driver, either. :Julian: Almost as good as you. :Joe: Like hell. :Flagler: Our buyer understands that risk equals profit, Johnson. :Johnson: Well they'd better, I'm giving up eighteen years of distinguished service here. :Flagler: You can't feed your family on shiny medals and honorarium. :Frankie: Where am I? The morgue? What if I was dyin'? :Nurse: I think we'd all be relieved, Mr. Waters. Now what can we do for you this time? Sheets too tight? Pillow not fluffed? :Frankie: Joe, Julian, you would not believe the abuse I am putting up with here. :Nurse: Well, what do you know, you *do* have friends. Guess I lost the pool. :Frankie: Wasn't she Ilsa the She-wolf for the SS? :Julian: How you feeling, man? :Frankie: I got a headache, a neck-ache, a backache, my knee hurts, I'm dizzy and look at this, look at what they got me wearing! :Frankie: (Learning that the car he drove was sabotaged) What? Somebody tried to kill me? Who would do a thing like that? :Julian: We were hoping you'd help us out with that one. :Frankie: But everybody loves me! :Frankie: (Joe asks for information on Gerraro) So you crossed paths with Wonder Woman? :Frankie: She always gets her man. :Julian: Hear that, Joe? :Joe: She's our only lead. :Julian: Joe was quite impressed by her yesterday. :Frankie: What happened yesterday? :Joe: Long story... 'nother time. :Frankie: She's single, Joe. :Joe: You don't trust me. :Sally: No offense, Joe, but you were a criminal in your past life, you drive a stolen vehicle which you maintain with no visible means of income. What's there to trust? :Joe: Yeah well I'm not a criminal any more. Figured I have a debt to pay for my past. :Sally: Oh and if you hadn't rescued the Viper it would be out rusting in some junkyard. :Joe: That's right and with that car I know I can make a difference. :Sally: Oh, cue the violin music! :Sally: Okay, Astor. You got so many fans on the department for me to actually arrest you, and I really don't wanna do all that paperwork. :Joe: Thought you didn't trust me? :Sally: I don't. But some of my fellow cops can be bought and I don't think you can. :Joe: That a compliment? :Sally: Don't push it! :Sally: (About the Viper) You don't think I'm actually gonna go with you in this thing, do you? :Joe: This happens to be the most sophisticated car on the planet! :Sally: Yeah, but I feel much more comfortable if I'm behind the wheel. Remember, I saw you driving last night. :Joe: What's wrong with my driving? :Sally: Well... you're not bad, Astor, but you know, a year ago they offered me the Viper Project. I turned it down, too many gadgets. :Joe: Gadgets? :Sally: Hey, call me old-fashioned, you know, but, I prefer to rely on myself, rather than on a pile of circuits. :Joe: Aren't you the least bit curious? :Sally: You wouldn't consider letting me drive, would ya? :Joe: Never. :Sally: That so? I love a challenge. :Sally: You're sweet, Joe and if my arm didn't hurt like hell I'd punch your lights out for it! :Flagler: You had trouble. :Bobby: I handled it. :Flagler: Well, good for you, Bobby. But I guess I don't need you anymore. :Bobby: On the contrary, I don't need you anymore. I made up my own mind. :Sally: (Arresting Flagler) You know, Flagler, some days I just love my job. :Wilkes: Two minutes and eight seconds, that's the time to beat. :Sally: Piece of cake. Two minutes and eight seconds, you're gonna owe me dinner. :Joe: I concede. :Sally: What, you're not going to let me drive the car? :Joe: I concede, I owe you dinner. :Sally: So you're admitting that I'm a better driver than you are. :Joe: No, I just wanna buy you dinner. :Sally: Are you scared that I'm gonna beat the pants off you, Astor? :Joe: Scared? Nah, Gerraro. :Sally: This is not settled, you know. See you boys around. :Julian: Take care, now. Nice to have a friend on the force. :Sally: Nice to have some friends I can trust. :Joe: You mean that? :Sally: Don't push it, Astor. Dinner, tonight, pick me up at eight o'clock, and would you mind shaving? :Frankie: Hey, can I tell you somethin'? Listen, we got the car, we got the race course, we got the stopwatch... how 'bout once around for Frankie? What do you say? Come on! Hey, come on, you guys, why not? What, are you afraid a guy with one bad leg is gonna beat you too? What are ouy afraid of, Joe? C'mon you guys, this isn't fair. I NEVER GET TO DRIVE THE CAR! Category:Season 1 episodes